Spartanburg County, South Carolina - Chapter 18: The Anderson Family, 1900

William Anderson was a Scotch-Irishman, who settled', in Pennsylvania, and had a mill on Connechocheange Creek. He emigrated from there to the Waxhaws, S. C. , and thence to Charleston, S. C, and thence to Spartanbnrg county, S. C, settling on the Tygersin 1763. His daughter, Sarah Anderson, remained in Charleston, and subsequently became the matron of the Orphan House, and on the occasion of the visit of General Washington to that city, entertained him at her table as her guest. She married Wm. Breaken, and had one son, William, In her old age and infirmity, she became an inmate of the home of her nephew "Tyger Jim " Anderson, and as long as she lived, she always looked back with pride,, when it was her pleasure to entertain General Washington. After the surrender of General Lincoln in Charleston, May, 1780, the British took possession of her house.

William Anderson was a staunch Whig and patriot during the Revolution, and as such incurred the displeasure of the Tories. He was a very old man at the time, and unable to participate in active warfare. Soon after theclose of the Revolution, he was murdered (1783) by a band of Tories, painted and disguised as Indians. They took him out of the house, and split his head with a tomahaw^k and scalped him. He was living at the time with his son David Anderson, whose house they burnt, and whose wife made her escape to the house of ]\Ir. Crawford five or six miles distant, with nothing on but her night-clothes, wading two Tygers, South and Middle,.

after binding up the wounds of James Silliman, a lad of about thirteen years of age, whom they had in their employ, who had been scalped and stabbed in two or three places, and had been thrown upon a brush-heap. He recovered and lived to a good old age.

William Anderson was buried in the Snoddy bottoms wrapped in a cow's hide. His remains were afterwards removed to a burial ground near James Chamblin's, by " Tyger Jim " Anderson, who put neat tombstones to his memory and that of his wife.

The wife of Wm. Anderson was a Miss Denny, and by this marriage he had five children, three sons and two daughters : i. David, the ancestor of the Tyger River Anderson families ; 2. John, the ancestor of the Anderson families in York county, S. C. ; 3. Denny, the ancestor of the Anderson families on Enoree River ; 4. Sallie, who married a Breaken, and, 5, Rebecca, who never married.

Major David Anderson, the eldest son of William Anderson, was born August 25th, 1741. He owned nearly all the lands around where Major F. L. Anderson now lives, and his remains were interred in the family graveyard on the Monday Chamblin place. He received a liberal English education, probably in Pennsylvania, before the removal of his father to South Carolina. He married Miriam (Maria) Mason, an English lady in the city of Charleston, in the year 1772. Her father, Major Mason,* emigrated to the Province of Carolina a few years before the marriage of his daughter, and settled near the Island Ford on Saluda River, in the present county of Edgefield.

*In Drayton's Memoirs, the name of Major Mason is spelled Mayson. For an account of the gallant part he performed in the Siege of Williamson's fort at Ninety-six, see "Colonial and Revolutionary History Upper South Carolina," pp. 57 to 68.

INIajor Anderson was engaged for some years before the Revolution surveying public lands for the Colonial government. When the war commenced, fearing lest his house might be burned by the Tories or Indians, he prepared a nice buckskin sack and sewed up his plats, surveys and claims against the government, and suspended them in the hollow of a tree in the woods, where he thought they would be secure. iVt the close of the war he went to hunt for his buckskin, when to his great surprise and mortification, he found skin and papers cut and torn into innumerable fragments lying at the foot of the tree, having been devoured by the flying squirrels. Thus w^as the labor of years lost. The government afterwards offered him thirty or forty negroes to reimburse him for his services, which he refused to accept. He preferred the gold eagles - which he never received.

Before the war he held a commission from the King of England as magistrate. Espousing the Whig cause he acted a conspicuous part during the Revolution, participating in the siege of Ninety-six, the battle of Eutaw Spring, and other engagements. In another volume, we have mentioned him in connection with the battle of the Cane-brakes, and also as a member of Captain John Barry's company, which marched in pursuit of "Bloody Bill" Cunningham after his murderous raid to the upcountry of South Carolina, November, 1781, an account of which we have noticed in another volume.*

I. William Anderson, who married Patsey Greer, who resided near Greers, S. C. He first settled on Tyger River, but afterwards removed to Stone INIountain, Ga. His children were (i) David and (2) Robert Anderson of

Cherokee county, Ga., each marrying and having families, there ; (3) Samuel Anderson, who was in the Florida war,, died near Stone Alountin, Ga., leaving a family; (4) Mary,, who married, to whom unknown, leaving two children,, a son and daughter ; (5) Maria, who married Isaac Woodruff, leaving a family ;t (6) Sallie, who never married ; (7) Katy, who married an Elam, and (8) Henrietta, whomarried a Hambrick, both of the two latter leaving families,

James Mason Anderson, known as "Tyger Jim," whomarried Polly Miller, daughter of Michael Miller, and who will receive further notice in this narrative.

4. Henrietta, who married James Chamblin, called "Monday" Chamblin, and lived one mile east of "Tyger Jim" Anderson, on the road to Spartanburg. His descendants will be noticed in another place.

I. Captain David Anderson, who married Harriet Brockman, daughter of Colonel Thomas P. Brockman, of Greenville District, S. C. ; 2. Henrietta, who married Rev. Wm. Harris, a Presbyterian minister in Abbeville District, S. C. ; 3. Dr. John Crawford Anderson, a graduate of Jefferson College, Philadelphia, Pa.., who married first a Miss Ale Alpine, of Greene county, Ala., and a second time to a Miss McLemore, of the same State. By the first marriage referred to is a son, John C. Anderson, at present the youngest judge on the bench in Alabama, and several daughters. By the second marriage two daughters were born, one of whom is the present wife of

Charles A. Moore, of Pacolet, S. C, she being his only descendant in Spartanburg county. Dr. Anderson, after his graduation in Philadelphia, was tendered a position in the hospital there. He died in Eutaw, Ala.

5. Henry Miller Anderson, who never married, graduated in Franklin College, Athens, Ga. (now the State University) , and died three months after graduation.

6. Michael Miller Anderson married Margaret Cresswell of Anderson county, S. C, and moved to Georgia, near Adairsville, where he lived the remainder of his life and raised a highly respectable family.

7. James Alexander Anderson married Rebecca McLemore, of Greene county, Ala., half-sister of the wife of his brother. Dr. John C. Anderson. He died, leaving two daughters.

9. Mason Gilliland Anderson married Sarah Gillam, of Abbeville county, daughter of Genera.1 James Gillam, who was a first cousin of John C. Calhoun, his mother being a Caldwell, sister of Calhoun's mother. He had four children, three daughters and a son. One daughter is the present wife of Maior John A. Lee, at Spartanburg.

Mason G. Anderson was a graduate of the South Carolina College of the class of '54. He read law with Tucker & Farrow at Spartanburg and after being admitted to the bar, his father offered him advantages to quit the profession and go to farming, which he did. He removed first to Mississippi, thence to Florida, w^here he died.

married Thomas Cunningham, of Anderson, S. C, leaving two children, viz. : John, now living in INIississippi, and Nancy, who died in infancy.

1. General John C. Anderson, who married Emma Buist, daughter of Rev. E. T. Buist, D.D., of Greenville S. C, and died in 1892 or '93. General Anderson was a rnan of more than ordinary intelligence and force of character. He was a graduate of the South Carolina Military Academy, served for a time during the war as adjutant of the 13th South Carolina Regiment, and after the war was promoted to a brigadier-generalship in the State troops. He was elected to the legislature of South Carolina from his native county in 1878, and served two years. In 1884 or '85, he was appointed by President Cleveland postmaster at Spartanburg, which position he held for five years. He then removed ta his home, near Moore, S. C, where he lived the remainder of his days, devoting his attention to his farm, orchard and vineyard, in all of which he was successful. He was cut down in the prime of his life. He was in. every sense of the word a patriotic, progressive and public-spirited citizen. His widow and several children survive him.

James Mason Anderson, " Tyger Jim," whose descendants we have already noticed, was a prominent citizen and a successful farmer and business man in his day. He was a man of fine judgment, indomitable perseverance and originality in nature. He was as much a wagoner as a farmer and accumulated a fine estate of lands and other property on Ben's Creek and South Tyger. During the war of 181 2 he drove his wagon to Baltimore, Md., and stopped the same on the public square in Washington, and walked into the capitol where he recognized an old friend, Elchendor, then a member of Congress from Ohio.

We have already stated that at the time of the murder of William Anderson (1783) , the house of his son Maj. David Anderson was burnt. The latter improvised a wagon shed to live in until he could erect another dwelling. It was under this wagon shed that "Tyger Jim"

John Anderson, son of William Anderson, the original settler and brother of Major David and Denny Anderson, removed to York county, S. C. He had five children, viz. : William, who never married ; John, who married a lady unknown to writer ; Sallie, who was married to a Starr ; Elizabeth, who married a Steele, and one daughter who never married.

John Anderson, his son, had two children, viz. : i. Rev. J. Monroe Anderson, professor in Davidson College, and, 2, Mary. The former married a Miss Neil, and had children as follows: Rev. Neil Anderson, Montgomery, Ala.; Lois, Barnwell, in California; Mary, unmarried; Sue, married Rev. Paul Winn ; and Lizzie, married Major John A. Lee, of Spartanburg (second wife). 2. The daughter (Mary) married Dr. David Watson, of York county. They had five children, viz.: Sallie, who married Jas. H. Anderson, of Spartanburg- county (before noticed), and David Watson, married and living in California, no children ; Dr. John A. Watson, Asheville, N. C. ; Emma, married Thos, Neill, now in Texas; and Lizzie, who died unmarried.

Denny Anderson, third son of the original William Anderson, settled on Enoree River. He was a Revolutionary soldier, married and had children as follows :

1. John Anderson, Esq., whomarried Nancy Alexander of Fairview, Greenville county, S. C. He was a surveyor and magistrate, and one of the prominent men of his day, and was an elder in the Antioch Presbyterian church.

2. Denny Anderson, who married a Miss McCravy, located on Ben's Creek and left a numerous and highly respectable family in the vicinity of Reidville, S. C. Among his daughters, was the wife of Thos. P. Gaston, Esq.; wife of Andrew Collins, still living, and wife of James Darby.

3. Elbert Anderson, who married a Miss Bryson of Laurens county. Among the children by said marriage is Rev. Elbert Anderson, a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, his present charge being in Rockbridge county, \'a.

6. Elizabeth, who married Thomas Leonard, a prominent member of the Methodist church. William and Thomas Leonard and Hiram Bennett raised highly respectable families.

9. James Anderson (Enoree Jim), who married first Peggy Dorah, and second, Jane Mills. He was a successful farmer, a progressive and highly respected citizen, and had children as follows, viz. , all by the first wife :

3. Dr. David R. Anderson of Greenville county, S. C, a prominent physician and highly respected citizen. He is an exemplary member and elder of Fairview (Presbyterian) church. Two of his sons-in-law, W. H. Burwell and Thomas B. Craig, are prominent ministers of the Gospel in the Presbyterian church. Another son-in-law, Selden Kenedy, is also a prominent and useful member of the Associate Reformed Church. His only son, James Anderson, married Lucy Wilson, a sister of Rev. B. F. Wilson of Converse College.

4. Professor James Anderson, graduate of South Carolina College, i860 ; has been president of several female colleges - first at Laurens, S. C, afterwards at Huntsville, Ala.; he married a Miss Dudley. He has filled several distinguished positions, and has quite a reputation as an educator.

Among the daughters of the original William Anderson is Sallie Breaken, already mentioned, and Rebecca, who never married. Both of these sisters lived on

Ben's Creek, not far from its confluence with South Tyger. Sallie was married to Breaken in Charleston, whilst her father lived there, and the one son (William), referred to, went to Missouri, about whom nothing is known at this time.

Henrietta, daughter of Major David Anderson, married James Chamblin, called "Monday," and lived one mile east of Tyger James Anderson on the road to Spartanburg. They had children, viz. :

1. David Chamblin, married four times, first to Miss Pearson, second to Miss Jane Corry, third to Miss Cynthia Darwin, and fourth to Mrs. Eliza Hunter.

6. Maria Chamblin, who married a Hawkins, who died early leaving a widow and children, viz. : Wyatt, Nannie and Sallie, all of whom went to Texas.

W. Thomas Miller, lived and died unmarried at the old homestead. Dr. Pinckney Miller, married Belle Young, and went to Mississippi, where he died. Samuel Wyatt Miller, married Miss Elliott Drummond, and went to Texas. Dr. David Miller, married in Texas. Charles Miller, married Mrs. Elliot Miller, and lives in Texas. Henrietta married Henley N. Mattox, and went to Texas. Permelia, married Dr. Sam Knight, Fountain

Inn, Greenville county, S. C, and Fannie, married Major Thomas Anderson of Anderson county, S. C, Avho, soon dying, left her a widow ; she returned to the old family homestead, where she now resides.

Among the oldest of the surviving members of the Anderson connection in Spartanburg county is Maj. Frank L. Anderson, one of the sons mentioned of James M. (Tyger Jim) and Polly (Miller) Anderson, who was born January 30th, 1830, at his father's old homestead place on the waters of Ben's Creek and South Tyger, where he at present resides, which has been the home of -four generations in his family.

Maj. Anderson received his first school instructions in the Poplar Spring Academy. His teachers were Jas. K. Dickson, Geo. McDuffie Broyles, and others. Afterwards he attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he completed a good classical education. After this, he gained much practical information by travel and observation.

For some years before the outbreak of the civil war "between the States, he was elected and commissioned by the governor of South Carolina, as captain of the Cashville Beat company, which formed a part of the old T^hirty-sixtt Regiment South Carolina militia. Subse- quently he was elected and commissioned as major of the lower battalion of said regiment. He served seven years as an officer in the State militia, which under . the laws of the State at that time, exempted him from further service in the same.

A few months before the beginning of the civil war, he enlisted in the Spartan Rifles (Captain Jos. Walker) , one of the first companies organized for the service, and was made a sergeant in said company. He left his native county with the first troops for the war, and served during the first year of the same in the 5th regiment South Carolina Volunteers (Col. Micah Jenkins). Upon the reorganization of the troops in Virginia in '62, he became a member of Company A, Holcomb Legion (Col. P. F. Stephens). With the exception of two or three days, he kept his health during the entire war, was in every battle and skirmish in which his regiment was engaged, and escaped without injury. While the siege at Petersburg was in progress, during the latter part of the war during a fight he planned a traverse on the picket line in front of the crater, where orders had been given to reverse the enemy's picket line and push it further back. This saved the lives of many of his company from an enfilading fire of the enemy, while other companies, not having the benefit of a traverse, suffered heavily, many being killed. The picket line at this time and place was under the command of Capt. A. B. Woodruff, who always stood to his post and discharged his duty under the most trying dangers and circumstances surrounding him. In early life, Major Anderson connected himself with the Nazareth (Presbyterian) church - the mother church of his ancestry - and was some time after ordained an elder in the same, which office he still retains. He has always been a prominent member of this branch of the Christian church, and from first to lasK, has led an exemplary Christian life. He has often been a delegate to the Presbyteries and Synods, and has been twice a delegate to the General Assembly, the highest court of the church.

Upon the reorganization of Antioch church (near Cashville, S. C), which was removed to Reidville, S. C, he connected himself with that church, and was in fact its founder under the new organization, which is now in a flourishing condition. He is a man of large benevolence, a liberal contributor to all the objects of his church, and has contributed to the churches of other denominationsin the country surrounding him. He takes a lively interest in everything concerning the welfare of his neighborhood and country. With Col. T. J. Moore, he educated a young minister, who is now making his mark as a minister of the gospel in the Presbyterian church.

Major Anderson, although now about sixty-nine years of age, is still in the full vigor of health, maintaining the splendid physique, height and dignified bearing which belonged to a hardy and robust ancestry. He may be classed among the leading agriculturists of Spartanburg county, having always been successful in his chosen line of occupation. He has always lived above w^ant, is a bountiful provider and is hospitable and entertaining in his home. He has never aspired to public office or political honors, but has always lived the life of a law-abiding, progressive and industrious citizen, commanding the respect and esteem of all.

In 1859, Major Anderson married Miss Susan N. Norris, daughter of Capt. Wm. Norris, of Union, S. C, who died in 1863, leaving two children, Frank Nuckles Anderson and William Norris Anderson, both now resi^ dents of the State of Tennessee. He married a second time IVIiss Ada Eppes, of Sussex county, Va,, by which marriage he has the following children : Victor, Robert Reid, Ben Mason, Tom Moore, Walter Carey, James- Leland, John Marshall and Henrietta Maria.